Four crime branch officials arrested for their alleged complicity in the custodial death of Ghatkopar bomb blast accused Khwaja Younus were on Sunday remanded in police custody till March 9.

Police Inspector and encounter specialist Praful Bhosale, his Ghatkopar crime branch unit colleague Police Inspector Nitin Vhanmane, Assistant Police Inspector Hemant Desai and Sub-Inspector A Khot have been booked for murder (Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code) and causing disappearance of evidence (Section 201 IPC). They were arrested on Saturday.

Younus was arrested under the Prevention Of Terrorism Act for the December 2002 blast after he was deported from Dubai.

Co-accused Dr Mateen had informed the trial court that Younus was mercilessly beaten up by policemen in his presence. Younus had vomited blood, Mateen said.

The police, however, denied the allegation and said Younus had disappeared from the police van after it met with an accident when they were on their way to Ahmednagar for further investigation on January 7, 2003.

Later, the case was handed over to state Crime Investigation Department. The Bombay high court had directed the CID to treat co-accused Mateen's statement as a fresh first information report on custodial death and investigate on those lines.

The CID officials told the court on Sunday that the four accused had conspired and killed Younus. Younus was not absconding as was claimed by them and the CID needed their police custody to further investigate the case and to determine the role of the four and other police officers, the CID said.

The CID claimed that the person who was being taken to Ahmednagar was not Younus. It wanted to find out who the person was.

The CID had questioned Assistant Commissioner of Police Ambadas Pote and Inspector Arun Borade on Saturday.

Earlier, Assistant Police Inspector Sachin Vaze and three constables were also arrested in the case. They are now out on bail.